The African Cup of Nations begins this month, but Premier League clubs are expected to be without a number of key players throughout the tournament.
FIFA has confirmed that December 15th is the deadline for clubs to release players for this month’s Africa Cup of Nations. Previously, teams had until December 8 to send players to the national team.
Talks between key stakeholders ended in the negative, giving Premier League teams the luxury of playing African players for an extra week. FIFA made a similar decision ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
This means Liverpool will use Mohamed Salah for the league match against Brighton & Hove Albion. It also means Manchester United trio Brian Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Nousair Mazraoui will not be released until later this month.
read more: Manchester United news: Ruben Amorim prepared to let go of four star players as Brian Mbeumo’s situation improvesread more: Premier League wishes come true, what AFCON changes mean for Liverpool and Manchester United
FIFA said the delay in the deadline for clubs to release players was due to “the successful FIFA-led consultations with key stakeholders and the spirit of solidarity shown by CAF to reduce the impact on various stakeholders”.
The decision will allow clubs competing in the Champions League to retain players scheduled to play in AFCON for next week’s games. Players competing in the Europa League and Conference League will also be available.
Sunderland could lose seven players in the competition and were expected to play their first top-flight Tyne Wear derby without them. However, in the future you will have a complete choice.
Wolves will have five players available, while Nottingham Forest are missing four players. The only Premier League clubs expected to be unaffected are Arsenal, Chelsea and Leeds United.
The tournament begins on December 21st with hosts Morocco taking on Comoros. The tournament will be held from the end of December until the new year, with the finals being held on January 18th.
Depending on the outcome of this competition and Egypt’s progress, Salah could miss up to seven games for Liverpool. Here are the games the forward could miss:
Tottenham (A) – Premier League – 20 December Wolves (H) – Premier League – 27 December Leeds United (H) – Premier League – 1 January Fulham (A) – Premier League – 4 January Arsenal (A) – Premier League – 8 January FA Cup Third Round Proper – 10 January Burnley (H) – Premier League – 17 January
And depending on how far Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Morocco advance in AFCON, here are the games Mbeumo, Amad and Mazraoui could miss.
Bournemouth (H) – Premier League – 15 December Aston Villa (A) – Premier League – 21 December Newcastle (H) – Premier League – 26 December Wolves (H) – Premier League – 30 December Leeds United (A) – Premier League – 4 January Burnley (A) – Premier League – 7 January FA Cup Third Round Proper – January 10 Manchester City (H) – January 17
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